


Speaking with the Enemy

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Exes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24825412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: There was something very furtive about calling Kent now. He was on the other side. The Enemy. Although, in a way, he had been The Enemy since they had broken up.
Relationships: Kent Davison/Sue Wilson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Speaking with the Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Crazymaryt who suggested, '“I just really miss talking to you.” for Kent and Sue. Feels fitting.'

POTUS drummed her fingers on the desk. ‘Is this something we can use?’

‘Tricky,’ Candi said. ‘We don’t want to look like we’re making a cold-blooded attempt to capitalise on a woman’s death.’

Especially since that was _exactly_ what they were trying to do. Sue pursed her lips slightly as she took notes.

‘But she actively seeks the support of those kind of people,’ POTUS said. ‘If there’s some kind of doubt about how she died, in a way that suggests the campaign might be involved, that could undercut her support.

“Those” kind of people. Hmm.

Candi was shaking her head. ‘The campaign being involved somehow smacks of whack-job conspiracy theories,’ she said. ‘Sure we can plant some of those ideas in the usual places, Reddit, 4-Chan –’

‘Tumble?’ POTUS suggested.

Sue stared rigidly at her notepad.

Candi made a strangled noise. ‘Tumblr is more theories about people being in secret relationships.’

‘Well…’

‘Actors,’ Candi added. ‘Boy band members. Not so much staffers.’

Sue squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

‘Ah,’ POTUS said. ‘Right. So, we’re back to focussing on Davison.’

Which he will _hate._

Candi chewed her pen. ‘I’m not sure that accusing an innocent man of murder is really the _look_ we want.’

‘Big assumption there, Candi,’ POTUS said.

Candi’s eyes widened. ‘You think he did it?’

‘What? No! I don’t mean…’ POTUS put her hands on the desk. ‘We don’t have to accuse him of _murder_. God. Just that maybe he isn’t as upset as a reasonable person might expect. Maybe he wasn’t a very good boyfriend. Maybe he doesn’t deserve the sympathy bump that is being transferred over to Meyer.’

‘Maybe there’s something creepy about a man his age who’s never been married,’ Candi suggested.

‘There you go,’ POTUS said.

Genuinely creepy men made sure that they had the camouflage of a partner. Kent didn’t have the camouflage because he had nothing to hide. Sue shook her head as she looked at the other women.

‘Nothing legally actionable,’ Candi said. ‘We can’t go anything illegal. But maybe he and Meyer are a little too close?’

Sue barked a single laugh. The other women starred at her.

‘Holy crap, Sue,’ POTUS said.

‘I beg your pardon, Ma’am.’

‘I didn’t even know you _could_ laugh,’ Candi said wonderingly.

If someone chose to go by “Candi” and wore a lot of pink, then they should really try much harder not to appear idiotic.

‘President Meyer is not fond of Mr Davison,’ Sue said carefully. ‘She has never been fond of him.’

POTUS smiled and glanced at Candi. ‘I think that’s Sue-speak for Meyer _hates_ Davison.’

Candi shrugged. ‘That doesn’t stop people sleeping together.’

That was a terrifying insight into the woman’s private life.

‘The point isn’t that it’s true,’ POTUS said. ‘The point is that it’s credible and damaging without being something that he can sue us over.’

Candi shrugged. ‘She like… twenty years younger than him and hot. Why would _he_ wanna sue?’

POTUS narrowed her eyes. ‘You think she’s hot?’

‘Relatively,’ Candi said quickly. ‘You know, for an older white lady who dresses like Nancy Reagan.’

Never mind Kent, if Gary had heard that then there would definitely have been a murder.

***

There was something very furtive about calling Kent now. He was on the other side. The Enemy. Although, in a way, he had been The Enemy since they had broken up. Talking to him then hadn’t felt furtive, merely infuriating. Now, however, the clandestine call lent a frisson of excitement and danger. It was a tiny thrill of misbehaviour when Sue was rigid in her compliance with the law. She had never even shoplifted, smoked weed, or broken the speed limit. She followed the rules.

There was no _rule_ about not calling Kent. There was no law against meeting him far from the Capitol. Nonetheless, her heart beat faster and her breath got shorter. She glanced around a few times as she crossed the restaurant and squirreled herself in the corner of the room. She checked her cell a couple of times, before she looked up at the sound of the door opening.

Kent needed to buy a new overcoat. The grey one wasn’t too worn but she was tired of seeing it. He wore entirely too much grey. The only effect it has was to leech the colour from his skin.

His lips quirked into a small smile as he saw her. He took off his overcoat as he walked towards her. Underneath he was wearing a sand coloured suit.

Ugh. No. Nasty. He needed to eschew neutral colours entirely. Why wasn’t anyone telling him this?

Oh. Right.

‘This all feels very furtive,’ he said lightly, sitting down.

Sue looked at the menu. ‘Does it? I suppose if I were you then I would find it odd that someone would ask to converse with me.’

He chuckled. ‘You know that you attack too hard when something has hit close to home.’

She scowled at him. ‘You continue to imagine that you have some particular knowledge of my personality.’

‘For some reason.’

A server came over to take their orders. Sue watched Kent from under her eye lashes. He looked better than he had the last time that she’d seen him. Then he had been working for Jonah. Sue had thought that working for Meyer hadn’t suited him but working for Jonah seemed to suck the life out of him. They had talked then but he had been short and carried a sense of impatience that he had rarely ever shown in front of her before.

‘I was sorry to hear about your partner,’ Sue said as the server left.

He was quiet for a moment. ‘It’s very odd. It feels unreal. I don’t think that I am sad or upset and then I will, without warning, have to find somewhere private to weep.’

‘Almost like purging,’ Sue suggested.

‘Almost,’ he agreed. ‘Was it like this when your father died?’

‘Not precisely. He had been ill for some time. It wasn’t a surprise.’ 

‘I wonder if that makes in better or worse,’ he said. ‘Longer to grow accustomed to the situation, certainly, but the ongoing distress and expectation of grief to come must be misery in its own way.’

Sue clasped her hands together. ‘There is no “good” option, only different flavours of terrible.’

‘Indeed.’ Kent crossed his legs. ‘And you? How is your husband?’

‘He is former,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Am I supposed to believe that you didn’t know that?’

‘I didn’t,’ he said seeming quite honest. ‘We have few acquaintances in common and despite the fact we work in the same field I am rarely included in office gossip.’

‘Not even as opposition research?’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re hardly…’ He paused. ‘Allow me to rephrase. In the war that is politics, you would not be considered an active combatant. Opposition research is used for attacks of one nature or another. Attacking you would be… unsporting. Inappropriate if you will.’

‘Oh.’ Sue looked away as the server brought over their drinks.

‘You almost seem disappointed.’

‘Not in the way that you mean,’ she said. ‘We have research on you.’

‘Is it Mike’s diary?’ Kent asked. ‘Ben came out oddly well all things considered.’

‘Not “you” plural. You singular.

He shrugged. ‘I would be surprised if you didn’t. When I worked for the Hughes presidential campaign the other campaigns certainly did it. Since nothing was used then or during the first Meyer campaign, I can only assume that nothing was there to be used.’

Sue took a deep breath. ‘Your partner hadn’t been killed before.’

Kent starred at her. ‘Julie. You’re planning on using her death against me?’

‘It was nothing to do with me,’ Sue said.

‘I could say the same.’

She shook her head as she bit her lower lip. ‘It’s political bullshit. I don’t think that you had anything to do with her death. _President Montez_ doesn’t believe that you had anything to do with her death. They just think it will undermine Selina’s support with women and the disabled. That’s all.’

He blew out his cheeks. ‘I suppose that it is hypocritical to be upset.’

‘I don’t care if it’s hypocritical,’ she said honestly. ‘I thought you should know before. It would be horrible if it came as a surprise.’

‘It is a surprise,’ Kent said. He clasped his hands together on the tabletop. ‘Thank you for telling me.’

‘I don’t know why I did.’

He sighed. ‘I don’t suppose it matters. At least it shouldn’t matter to me.’

The server brought their food.

‘Why did you think that I called you?’ Sue asked. ‘If not to give you some information about the campaign?’

Kent ran his thumb across the base of his fork. ‘I thought you wanted to talk.’

‘Talk? About what?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just really wanted to talk to you. I miss our conversations.’

She blinked. ‘At least half of our conversations are typically me telling you to shut up, go away, or both.’

He smiled slightly. ‘I know.’

‘And you miss that?’

‘Don’t you?’ he asked.

Sue picked up her cutlery. ‘That’s ridiculous. Real life doesn’t work that way.’ 

‘What way?’ he asked.

She pulled a face. ‘The revolting, “meet-cute” way. People don’t have conversations purely because they like conversing. They always get something out of it.’

‘Maybe what they get out of it is that they enjoy it,’ he suggested.

‘Why would anyone enjoy talking to their ex? That makes no sense.’

Kent ate a bite of food. ‘Perhaps some people do not loathe their exes. Perhaps some people can remember that, although things didn’t work out, they did genuinely have affection for their ex. Perhaps some of that affection remains despite everything.’

Sue’s knife rattled against the plate as she sliced down through her food. ‘That cannot possibly be true.’

‘I still have affection for most of my exes,’ he said sweetly.

‘I despise all of mine,’ she said gravely.

Kent tilted his head. ‘Are you quite sure?’

‘Entirely sure,’ she said.

He shrugged. ‘Then why are you here?’

Sue scowled. ‘I told you.’

Kent took a sip of his drink. ‘If you loathed me, genuinely loathed me, you wouldn’t be here to warn me. You might be here to gloat I suppose. You would probably wear your hair down if you were going to gloat.’

She automatically touched her ponytail. ‘You don’t like it up?’

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘But down is more glamorous and I feel that you would go all out on the glamour if you were coming here to gloat.’

Her lips twitched slightly. ‘So, your argument is that I must be here with good intentions because I’m not sufficiently well-dressed?’

He shook his head. ‘You said that you were here with good intentions,’ he pointed. ‘I was mostly pointing out that didn’t agree with your statement that you loathe all your exes.’

She crossed her legs. ‘But our relationship was so short and so shallow that I sometimes forget that it ever happened.’

He chuckled. ‘I’ve missed this.’

‘Being insulted?’

He shrugged. ‘I know better than to take it seriously.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘You should _always_ take me seriously.’

‘I take _you_ very seriously,’ he said. ‘Just not every single thing that you say.’

Sue decided to ignore this. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘About a campaign to accuse me of murdering my partner?’

She shook her head. ‘They’re not going to do that. Candi is afraid you might sue.’

He thought about it. ‘Then what? Imply I don’t care and that I’m living it up when I should be mourning?’

Sue nodded. ‘Is that what you would do?’

‘No. Voters don’t like attacks on family members or anything too personal. It makes them uncomfortable. Even if the target is damaged at least a proportion of that damage is reflected back on the attacker.’ He shrugged. ‘It can backfire entirely.’

Sue sipped her drink. ‘Especially if the target is forewarned?’

He thought about it. ‘Possibly. There might be pre-emptive moves to be made. I’ll have to discuss it with Ben.’

‘You always say his advice is terrible.’

Kent nodded. ‘It helps to hear it, so I know what not to do.’

Sue smiled slightly. ‘Ah. That is a relief. For a moment I was concerned that you had a brain tumour altering your personality or that you’d been body snatched.’

‘Thank you for looking out for my personality continuity,’ he said, smiling. He clasped his hands together.

‘I was merely concerned that you might climb up a clock tower or attempt to body snatch me.’

He nodded. ‘You would be a good choice. After you then the president.’ He licked his lips. ‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’

‘Coming to tell me what they’re doing.’ He touched the back of her hand. ‘I appreciate it.’

Sue stared at her hand. It hadn’t even occurred to her to move her hand away until after he had already moved his hand away again. A little while ago she would have flinched away from him automatically. A little while before _that_ she would have moved into his touch.

She felt the warmth of his brief touch fading away.

‘Yes, well,’ she muttered.

‘I’ve embarrassed you. I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention,’ he said gently. ‘I always thought you had an entirely healthy ego and no sense of unnecessary humility.’

She gently punched his arm. ‘Do you feel the need to tease every woman you’ve ever dated?’

‘Women I’ve dated. Female family members. Female friends. Women I like generally I suppose,’ he said. ‘If it’s inappropriate or you don’t like it then I won’t do it again.’

Sue shook her head before she had even thought about it. ‘You say that knowing that if I wanted you to stop then I would make you stop.’

He smiled. ‘Would you? I’m not entirely convinced that you are as terrifying as you like people to think,’

‘I don’t want terror,’ she said primly. ‘I demand _respect_.’

He nodded. ‘You have mine.’

‘You tease me,’ she pointed out.

‘Yes, and I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t respect and like you. Why would I bother teasing someone I didn’t respect?’

She considered it. ‘I’ve certainly never known you to tease Jonah, but then you dislike him.’

‘I don’t dislike Gary,’ Kent said. ‘And I don’t particularly dislike Mike. I wouldn’t tease either of them.’

‘Nobody respects Gary or Mike,’ Sue said. She shook her head. ‘You don’t tease Amy.’

He waggled his hand. ‘While I both like and respect Amy, I am not sure that she would necessarily understand and appreciate my sense of humour.’

‘Amy is too uptight to appreciate being teased.’

He tilted his head. ‘Do you appreciate it?’

She pursed her lips. ‘I don’t generally dislike it.’

‘That’s not a yes.’

‘It’s not a no either.’ Sue finished her drink. ‘You’re right.’

‘Oh, good. About what?’

She looked at her hands. ‘This is… quite pleasant. I’ve missed talking to you as well.’

Kent leaned forwards. ‘Perhaps when the election is over, we can do it more regularly.’

She nodded slowly. ‘Yes. I think I’d like to do that.’

The End


End file.
